U.S. State Department orders non-emergency personnel to depart from Beirut embassy

On February 23, the US State Department ordered the departure of all non-emergency government personnel from the US Embassy in Beirut, along with their family members. A State Department official, speaking anonymously, said they had determined it “prudent to reduce our footprint to essential personnel” based on an assessment of “the security environment,” while adding that the move was “temporary” and the embassy would continue to function. A US Embassy source told Reuters that 50 people had been evacuated, and the wire service learned that 32 embassy staff, along with family members, had flown out of Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport by Monday.

The State Department’s Lebanon Travel Advisory tersely noted that the ordered withdrawal was “due to the security situation in Beirut,” without elaborating. Many outlets reporting on the drawdown framed it as a precautionary measure tied to rising tensions between the United States and Iran.

MTV Lebanon News, an outlet with an anti-Hezbollah leaning, reported that the drawdown stemmed from specific Lebanese security threats. MTV Lebanon’s White House correspondent alleged to have learned that Washington took the move as a precautionary measure after the “great concern” caused by “Iranian [state] TV broadcasts depicting the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and Hamat Airbase as targets for attacks.”

On February 14, Iran’s Arabic-language IRIB channel Al Alam ran a short video under the title “Under Surveillance…Base No. 9 – Hamat Base Lebanon,” as part of a series of videos depicting US bases under surveillance. The 23-second video showed Hamat Air Base in crosshairs, describing it as “under surveillance” in Arabic but as “TARGETED” in English. The video then states, “The United States is reinforcing its military presence in the area. American transport aircraft are landing in several airbases. Among them is Hamat Airbase in northern Lebanon. In recent months, several military transport aircraft have landed at the base. These transport aircraft are each capable of transporting 77 tons of equipment. Which points to a widescale logistical support operation.”

Hamat Air Base is a Lebanese Air Force base located in Hamat, which is between Batroun and Tripoli in northern Lebanon. The US role at the facility is limited to providing security assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), with a focus on infrastructure funding, contracting, and training and maintenance support. The United States does not own or have operational control over the base, nor does the base host permanent US combat forces.

US Army Corps of Engineers (Middle East District/TAM) planning documents that mention Hamat Air Base describe a US-funded project to modernize the base. This effort includes rebuilding its runway and emergency access road, followed by assisting with additional upgrades, such as an air traffic control tower, a rotary-wing hangar, an aircraft fuel depot, taxiways, and a squadron operations building.

Over the years, US military transport aircraft have landed at Hamat Air Base, but only to deliver equipment to the LAF. A recent Al Hurra report noted that US personnel at the base were exclusively involved in training LAF counterparts and that any US presence there is for the purpose of training missions, maintenance teams, and military assistance.

Media outlets affiliated with the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance often depict Hamat Air Base as a staging ground for US military operations in the region, though these claims are unsubstantiated. Since Al Alam’s February 14 report, pro-Hezbollah-leaning media personalities have focused on spreading such unverified claims about Hamat Air Base – including a claim of an alleged standoff between US and LAF soldiers after a drone that overflew the base was shot down on February 16. LBCI Lebanon News, quoting an unnamed LAF source, said that the downed drone, which some reports had presumed to be Iranian, had actually belonged to a local resident who lost control over it while trying to record a special occasion. LBCI reported that the aircraft had been located by an LAF unit and did not pose any security threat.

Nevertheless, MTV Lebanon claimed that “successive security incidents that had occurred over the past two days” had heightened American concerns. The incidents ostensibly included the drone incident and “the detection of concerning moves from Dahieh [Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs] towards the environs of the US Embassy in Beirut.” The report did not elaborate on the nature of these movements.

Hezbollah has not directly threatened to attack US personnel or assets in Lebanon. However, in a January 26 speech, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem described US President Donald Trump’s threat to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as a direct threat to Hezbollah. He further stated that his group “could not ignore this” and viewed it as a “responsibility and obligation—as a matter of faith, conviction, and duty—to confront this threat and take all necessary measures and preparations to do so.” Qassem added that Hezbollah “reserved every right to do whatever we deem appropriate to meet the challenge,” without elaborating on the nature of the actions the group was considering. He only specified that Hezbollah was “not neutral” and would determine how to act based on the prevailing circumstances

David Daoud is Senior Fellow at at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs.